Week Six

Sam has had a few big break-throughs this week. He became a ballerina of sorts, escaped into the other horses' pasture, accepted a bit, and let us spray him with fly spray.

We were working Sam on moving his hind quarters, and he was doing well, but when he got up to speed, something strange happened. Sam decided he should just pick up one of his front legs, keeping the other one planted. Essentially, Sam was spinning. The front hoof on the ground was revolving as Sam moved his hind quarters, giving him the appearance of a horse ballerina. I wish I had gotten a picture, because this is a little difficult to believe. Sam is a little too smart for his own good.

We had let the horses out to graze into another big pasture, but did not let Sam out with them. However, Sam did not take this with the grace of a ballerina. Sam paced up and down the fence line for a while, then he stopped, so we assumed he would be just fine. No. We looked back out the window literally five minutes or so later and he was out with the others. After a timely inspection of the fence, we found that Sam had abandoned his ballerina ways when he jumped the fence, breaking the top hot wire, stretching the wire below it, and even heavily bending a T-post. That was evidence of a ballerina jumping a fence, it was something totally different. Sam, despite the damage done, was not hurt AT ALL. We were astounded by this unbelievable feat.

Sam's next feat was letting us SPRAY him with fly spray. He used to not let us do this at all, he was terrified. The truly amazing thing is that we have not worked with him on being sprayed. The first time we tried it, we saw it terrified him and have had yet to revisit it until today. And he just let us spray, no big deal, except that it shocked us.

Another bit of shocking information we learned this week was that Sam does not really mind having a bit in his mouth. After only a little hesitation, he took it in his mouth, mouthed it a little and stopped. Sam only really kept mouthing the bit when he got nervous about something.

Another thing Sam did this week was pass under a curtain that was slit in multiple places, even letting it touch him. I had cut up the shower curtain and then hung it up on one of the round pen entrances. I chose the gate that we let Sam in. Sam gets to go in the round pen during the day, so that he has more room and we keep this gate open.The idea was that if he wanted to go into the round pen, he would have to walk through it. The first day he did not want to go through it, I watched him wait for the wind to blow the curtain to the side so that he could pass without it touching him. After he was in the round pen, and he wanted to leave, I watched Sam wait for nearly three hours so the wind would blow the curtain enough so it would not touch him and he could leave. But now, after the curtain being there for a few days, Sam walks under it just fine, even when it hits him.


Sam has become quite the camera lover, as I was taking his pictures, he kept following me around and trying to taste the camera, so some pictures are a little strange, but they are all him.

Sam and Lincoln chillin' in the shade

Watching the action



Sam's scars

He kept following me



On his way to me

Sam smelling the camera

Sam getting an ice cube

Sam's reaction to the ice cube

Sam following me through the curtain on the way out

 

Sam you have come SO far and it is really amazing. We love you.

Sam's Week 5

Sam is doing so well, but we did hit a few bumps this week.

We learned that we absolutely must do as much desensitization as possible and that his natural mating instincts are fairly strong.

Sam has obviously staked his claim as Sunny's man, despite Sunny not agreeing. Sam did not appreciate Buddy interacting with Sunny(who is now out of heat) and decided that he could not let that happen. Poor little Buddy did not no he was doing anything wrong (and he wasn't) but Sam thought buddy was making trouble. All three of them were just fine together, before Sunny went into heat. Now the tides are still a little rocky between Sam and Buddy, and Sunny kinda hates Sam again. We think as long as Sunny is not out with the boys, they chould be fine.

We took Sam to his lesson for this week and were introduced to many new ways to get him used to very odd things, things that could happen while riding. One way was to do the rope exercises we were already doing with Sam in a different manner. We used the Jolly Ball to accomplish this. These exercises were very good for Sam, and even some of the other horses. The ball was very popular here, in fact, a little thief came and stole while we were working with Sam. I was able to get a picture of this.

The Jolly Ball and the thief



Sam started doing a couple of new things this week. He went out on the 22 ft line and made an okay-ish circle. Before this week, his circles were terrible. He has also started going in the trailer, turning around and then just standing (not coming back out) and waiting for a treat. Before this week, he would usually try to walk back out of the trailer instead of stand in it.


Sam chillin' with the cows

Sam has been terrified of the cows across the street, but then, we let some cows go out behind Sam's pasture. Within two days Sam was just hanging out with the cows (on the other side of the fence of course). In the picture, you can only see the white one, but there are some black cows hiding in the trees.

I am sorry I do not have more pictures this week, if I get some, I will post them.

Sam you are doing great and thank you for all the new information and love you have provided us.

Fast and Furious Week Four

I apologize for being a day late posting this.

Sam was pretty good in his fourth week here. We found out he can run if he wants to.
One day we were working with him in the arena, which is in our hayfield and does not have a fence, except around the entire field. We were attempting to get Sam to lope around in a circle on the line. He did not really want to do this or his body does not have quite all the muscle build up it needs to do this. Anyway, the rope got out of hand and he took off. He was flying! he ran all the way back through the open gate of the hayfield and up to the driveway.
At this moment out hearts stopped. We thought "Oh no. He is going out to the road and is going to be scared to death."
But, Sam turned around and ran back into the hayfield and down the fence line between the other horses' pastures and the field just as fast as he had run out!. Needless to say, I went and closed the gate as quickly as possible. After Sam got all of his energy out, running like we did not know he could, he let us just walk up to him and put him back to work on the line. Sam literally had the mind set that nothing at all had happened after we caught him.

We are not 100% sure why he turned back, w know he does not like being alone if he does not have to be. We also know that he is not fond of the cattle across the street from us. Our best guess is that Sam did not want to go past the cattle alone, so he came back to be with the other horses.

That was the adventure of the week, besides that, not much else happened other than us getting to trot on him and a better bath time.

Now Sam has decided he likes the water, he is still unsure of the water on his butt, but he is not moving away from it now. Sam now requires multiple drinks from the water hose when he gets a bath.    Sam is doing so well.

Sam, thanks for coming back!

Here are some of Sam's week four pictures

Just getting a drink at bath time

Sam standing on a tarp, no big deal

Sam just hanging out with a barn cat

Sam looking handsome under saddle

The Week Three Tango

Week 3. This has been an eventful week. Sam got his first actual bath! Sam found what he thinks is love AND Sam got his first hoof trimming!!

Sam was a perfect gentleman when he got his first bath. This one was with the water hose, not just a bucket and sponge! He had just finished working, so he was all hot (mainly due to the fact that the heat index here is over 103 degrees F by 9:00 am) and he appreciated the cool water running all over his body, until it reached the point of hitting his butt. Sam was not very sure about letting the water run over and down his rump, but after a while, he stood still and just let it happen. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of this (I did not want the camera to get wet).

Sam's love story is laughable. Sunny, the only mare on the property, is actually kinda mean to Sam. She doesn't make contact, but she pushes him around by making these frightfully mean looking faces at him. This is strange for Sunny to do, because the sweetest horse of all time, Buddy, is her pasture mate and he is in charge of her (Buddy does not push Sam around, they do not have an established dominant horse). Anyway, Sunny went into heat this week, and when she does this, she tends to cling to any male horse (gelding or stallion) that will let her. Guess what, Sam liked this attention, so you could say 'he was flirting with the mean girl.' It was hilarious to see the literally overnight change in their relationship, from one-sided hostility to lovey-dovey. Sam is gelded, so he couldn't impregnate Sunny even if he wanted to, but we separated them, just to prevent any possible injuries.

Sam has been consistent with his training, anything he learns stays with him and he gets fairly close to mastering them with in three days. At Sam's lesson, we worked on desensitizing him to movements that could occur while he was mounted. Once again, Sam was pretty good, until it came to his butt. The rope fell over his butt and that inspired a lot of movement, after a few minutes of working the rope around his butt, he calmed down and was good to go. This is one of the most amazing things about Sam, as soon as whatever was bothering him is gone, so is the panic, its almost as if it never happened. This week we have done more of this type of work and even rode him around the round pen for a bit, just at a walk of course. We are working on giving into pressure, so that we might be able to get some steering on Sam. At week two, we could never have steered Sam, but now its more like with enough patience and clear signals, a turn or two might come out of him. He is progressing very quickly, they said Mustangs are fast learners, but man, we did not expect Sam's training to go this quickly.

The most recent accomplishment of Sam's is his hoof trimming. All of the horses here are barefoot, meaning we do not have them wear shoes. The farrier we use is very patient and gentle. He also works with a veterinarian's office, so he was able to confirm our suspicion, that Sam has a weaker back end than most horses. This is most likely just due to lack of exercise and balanced nutrition, so by the time three months is up, he should have a beautiful back end. That being said, Sam was as perfect as could be, he only tried to pull his foot away a couple of times, for the first foot-his front left. We likely made a mistake with the next foot, we moved to the back left foot, like we do on all of the horses, but Sam has a weak back end. With the weak butt and back legs, it was probably harder for Sam to hold himself up and trust the farrier, so he got a little worried, not too bad, but worried for sure. As the farrier kept working on the back left, Sam got more worried and a bit of panic set in. We moved on to the right front, but it was too late, Sam did not want to let the farrier work on him anymore. After a fair amount of struggling, we finished the right front and left it at that. He probably would have been just fine if we just did the front and didn't try the back until he builds up the muscle to make him more comfortable.After the farrier left, it was right back to the normal Sam, hungry and curious.

Here are his week three pictures:

Sam hanging out in the shade

Being lazy

Sam's front feet before trimming

Sam's front feet after trimming

Sam's scars at week three

Sam showing me his disinterest

Sam looking for food

Sam waiting for food

Sorry the last picture looks funny, he was not worried about posing, he just wanted food.

Sam your are doing so great, so much better than expected! Keep it up Mr. Sam!